New Zealand

New Zealand has imposed diplomatic sanctions on Israel following the sentencing of two Israelis, accused of being Mossad agents, for fraudulently attempting to obtain a New Zealand passport. Uriel Zoshe Kelman, 31, and Eli Cara, 50, used the identity of a wheelchair-bound man suffering from cerebral palsy to apply for the passport. They pleaded guilty… More ▸

Two Israelis suspected by New Zealand authorities of being Mossad agents have pleaded guilty to unlawfully attempting to obtain a New Zealand passport. Uri Kelman, 30, and Elisha Cara, 50, pleaded guilty in Auckland’s High Court last week. They will remain in custody until a July 15 sentencing hearing. The crime carries a penalty of… More ▸

Editorial cartoons seen as anti-Semitic have ruffled feathers in the Jewish community in the United States and Australia. Now a similar squabble has led to the firing of a prominent cartoonist in New Zealand. New Zealand’s major newspaper dropped award-winning cartoonist Malcolm Evans for the way he caricatured Jews in cartoons dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian… More ▸

The government of New Zealand has boycotted this year’s Israel Independence Day celebrations. At a cabinet meeting attended by Prime Minister Helen Clark, the government decided to break with tradition and not send any minister or official representative to a reception last week in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, celebrating the 54th anniversary of the establishment… More ▸

Jews in distress are being encouraged to seek out a trouble-free environment way, way down under — in New Zealand. With Jewish communities in Argentina and South Africa seen as potential pools of immigrants, the Orthodox community in Auckland and the local B’nai B’rith both have launched campaigns hoping to bring more Jews to New… More ▸

A New Zealand university has apologized to the Jewish community for awarding a master’s degree to a student who had written a thesis denying the Holocaust. The 1993 thesis by Joel Hayward is cited regularly by neo-Nazis and other Holocaust deniers as evidence that they have academic support for their positions. Earlier this year, Hayward,… More ▸

A case of Holocaust denial has heated up in New Zealand. Jewish leaders in New Zealand are calling on Canterbury University to withdraw a 1993 master’s thesis that questioned whether Jews were killed in gas chambers during the Holocaust. The author of the thesis, Joel Hayward, recently sent a letter to the New Zealand Jewish… More ▸

The fight against hate crime has spread to New Zealand. The country’s Jewish community, spurred by a large increase in racist attacks, hosted a rally Monday in the capital of Wellington with the aim of developing a strategy to stop racist groups. Among those addressing the rally were three members of Parliament and a national… More ▸

A New Zealand radio broadcaster has lost the fight to air a show promoting the denial of the Holocaust. Fred Clements lost his final appeal earlier this month to air “Alternative News, Information and Comment,” a show that includes Holocaust denial. Clements took legal action when Wellington Access Radio in New Zealand decided earlier this… More ▸

A city council member in New Zealand who published an anti-Semitic booklet has outraged the country’s Jewish community and has elicited calls for his resignation. Cliff Tait, Hamilton City Council member, writes in the booklet “The Squeeze is On” that a Jewish conspiracy to control the world exists. In the booklet, Tait quotes “The Protocols… More ▸